Environmentalists want to know what took government officials so long to notify stakeholders and the public about thousands of plastic bags found washed up on the Broken Group of Islands -- a protected area along the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve near of Tofino.
CTV Vancouver Island first reported on the situation Friday after obtaining a leaked Parks Canada memo detailing the discovery of close to 2-thousand large plastic aquaculture feed bags found Nov. 10th scattered on 4 of the islands.
The Pacific Rim Surfrider Foundation is a volunteer group that arranges beach clean-up campaigns in the area -- and spokesperson Michelle Hall region says valuable time was lost:
"Yeah - we could have gotten onto the beaches sooner. We could have used our own boat transportation to get out on the Broken Group of Islands."
Hall says no one was informed of the situation -- and area residents were dumbfounded to see what was on the beaches:
" A lot of the community are finding out this by walking down the beaches and finding these bags everywhere, and not knowing. So they are coming to groups like Surfrider to ask why are all these bags ending up on the shores?"
Courtenay-Alberni NDP MP Gord Johns says he had to learn through the media last week. Johns is calling on Ottawa to take immediate action to clean up the mess, and has tabled a bill calling for a national strategy surrounding marine pollution.
A Parks Canada memo suggests a local aquaculture company could face charges in the matter, but the company was not named. However, photos of a barge that began sinking on October 20th were sent to CTV. The barge belongs to Omega Pacific Hatchery, a Chinook salmon farming company.
It wasn't until November 9th the barge sank completely, raising another question. Why was nothing done to stop it?